Customer Reviews

Vogue Knitting Quick Reference: The Ultimate Portable Knitting Compendium

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How many times have you packed yarn for a long trip, arming yourself against certain inescapable pulls of jaw-gaping boredom or intense family squabbling that requires hours of remedial knitting therapy? I know that I spend more time packing yarn for a trip than I do clothing! Then the problem; what to knit? Another pair of socks? A sweater? What if you want to finish a languishing project?

I can't carry a knitting encyclopedia or my knitting library with me. I have books, each of which has SOME of the techniques, but I found that this book is handy to tuck into my knitting carry-along. It's great to have all kinds of finishing techniques, increases, decreases, and especially needle size conversions and how to fix those unfortunate errors. Spiral-bound is great--stays open in the car or on a table.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

But this one is just right! This is the perfect book to use as a companion to your VK - *not* as a substitute or as a teaching manual. VKQR is not a beginner book; it's more of a refresher for those who already have a thorough reference (i.e. VK). You need a left slanting double decrease but don't know which one to use? Can't quite remember how to do the kitchener stitch? Can't remember how to do SSK? This book shows them to you without all the bulk of the original. It does not have everything (that would defeat the point), but it has the essentials in a user friendly format. This is the book I take on trips and often use at home when I don't want to lug out my VK. It lives in or near my knitting bag. It's thin and lightweight and I LOVE the spiral binding. The flap cover helps keep it closed when it's not needed, though being a paperback I do still have to be careful when its in the bag.

I am relatively new to knitting, so I took the Vogue Knitting (1989) book out of the library and have been lugging it around for weeks. I got an Amazon.com gift certificate as a gift and wanted to use it to purchase knitting books.

I purchased this book thinking it would be an adequate substitute for the larger Vogue Knitting (and easier to carry around). I was hoping that it would at least have all of the stitch patterns of the larger book, plus whatever I would need as my skills improved.

I was wrong. It has basic stitches, but none of the cool stitches I would like to experiment with. It reads in the reviews to be something of a reference, but it seems as if the editors couldn't make up their minds who the target knitters are supposed to be. In my opinion, it falls short as THE book for a beginner and it has things in it a more advanced (even intermediate) knitter doesn't need. It isn't a bad book, just not right for me

Needless to say, I sent it back. Once my credit comes through, I'm ordering Vogue Knitting.

I have to agree with the previous reviews of this book about many points. As I was also able to compare with the full Vogue Knitting book, I thought I'd add my thoughts that may help if you are debating between the Quick Reference and Ultimate Knitting books by Vogue Knitting.

Since this book is not currently open to viewing, here are the chapters:
1. Basic Techniques
2. Understanding Knitting Instructions
3. Correcting Errors
4. Circular and Double-Pointed Knitting
5. Color Knitting
6. Assembling
7. Design Details
8. Embellishments
9. Tables and Tools (Knitting Needles, Crochet Hooks, Substituting Yarn, Conversion Chart, Equivalent Weights, Needle Inventory, Pompom Template, Notes)

The Needle Inventory and Notes are for you to fill-in and are nice for a travel book.

I like that this book opens flat, but the covers are VERY thin (glossy cardstock) for a book that you are supposed to travel with - and the covers hang over the pages so the corners arrived already bent... and will become more bent when introduced to your knitting bag.

The book is somewhat bulky for most knitting bags... if they could have made it just a little smaller it would have been better. I would have preferred more thickness for less width and height. It is less than half the size of the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book when you consider depth, so you do save on weight.

The book omitted complete chapters from the full book that you would expect including:
History of Knitting
Blocking, Assembly and Finishing
Care of Knitwear
Stitch Dictionary
Modular Knitting Patterns
Traditional Knitting Patterns

Most topics were shortened from the full book. For example, there are no left-hand instructions in the portable book nor all of the tips. Blocking, basting, shaping your designs, planning circular designs, some decorative edging techniques, curved facing, row slants, pleats, tucks, gathers and ruching, and a few other topics are not included. These topics, especially blocking and designing are not something you would typically do while traveling with a knitting bag, so it makes sense to omit these as well as the stitch dictionary that you shouldn't need when working with a pattern.

In addition to the flimsy cover, I do feel that the Quick Reference lacks in some areas were it shouldn't.

Some topics I thought should not have been omitted, at least if this book is for all levels of knitters, include:
Joining yarns
Some of the cast-ons, increases and bind-offs
Using bobbins
Reading charts
Mosaic knitting

Since there were some mostly blank pages, additional information could have been added without much additional bulk.

Most of all, this book is missing an index - which is a major hindrance when trying to find a particular topic more quickly, even if there are only 120 pages.

Overall, I recommend this book if you don't have another book like it in your library. It is handy when you are away from your home library or an internet connection. It is also fine for beginners or those who just like to follow patterns and don't need to know the design process or have available techniques for making major alterations. You really won't benefit much from the larger books.

Otherwise, I would recommend either getting the full Vogue Knitting book or another knitting handbook if your budget only allows for one book. If you are more advanced and like to alter patterns, you should only have this book as a portable reference in addition to a good book or two at home.

It is what it claims, a good little quick reference book to fit in your knitting bag. However, if you need more, the exact same content down to the grafics, photos and text can be found in the older version of "Vogue Knitting the ultimate kitting book" isbn 0-394-57186-X (blue hardcover) which has a lot more information and it is easier to read, because the pictures and text are larger. It is also priced well and available used.
I wish I would have found that one first and I could have saved the money for the little book, since I do not really need a little book to fit in my knitting bag and have trouble reading the small print. The big book also has a few patterns in the back and a lot more helpful information like knitting on the round and designing a pattern.

I bought this because I wanted diagrams of how to KFB and SSK. At first I did not like that the diagrams are not directly correlated to the standard abbreviations (instead there is a section on increasing and the various methods, decreasing and the various methods etc...). However, now that I am used to it, it is very helpful. It may not be a good book for an a beginner to start with, but once you are beyond the basics it is good. It is one of the few books that is straight forward, no frills, and covers basic technique clearly with NO useless little cute projects (a plus in my opinion because there are so many other great books for that). I would have like more on knitting in the round, especially with color, but I think that would be rare to find in any book. :)

Great book to take along with you, just wish the pics were a bit brighter or larger and too bad it doesn't come with a needle gauge in the back like the "Knitters Reference Book", that would complete it.

I have to admit, I was looking for a nice little compact reference book to have on my desk or in my knitting bag from a source I knew to be dependable. The information is dependable as it is in the larger Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting book format. The wiro binding is great to keep the book open at the information needed, but it is very flimsy and oversized for what I wanted...if I were to keep this book in my knitting bag it would probably fall apart within a week. As it is, I keep a rubber band around it to keep it together. A stiffer cover and smaller format would have made me a very happy owner of this book.

I got this book as a birthday present and couldn't be more pleased. I taught myself how to knit and this book has helped me refine my skills without have a large book to carry around. I am hoping to get the big Vogue book soon but this has been great.

This book is a good reference for the basics. There are other books that will fit into your knitting bag that provide much more information. This one is a good basic "how-to" that has been invaluable to me as a novice knitter. I particularly like that it will lay flat when opened.

Again, this is a great basic reference book and it has been very useful to me. As my skills have improved, I have found other books that provide more information but I still come back to this one because of its easy-to-understand format.